[SOLVED] Firefox Quicktime plugin problem

paranoid4 · 05-06-2008, 07:45 AM

Hi,

I have a problem in my server which involves combination Firefox+QuickTime plug-in. Namely, our web server provider moved their servers and now uses DirectAdmin, though still Apache. And after that QuickTime plugin on Firefox plays .mp3 files only for about 4 seconds. Everything is fine on IE and mp3's are fully functional (and lasting much longer than 4 sec

).
The problem seems to be serverside, because no user with these applications is able to listen these audio files. I have tried to add MIME type to Apache (audo/mpeg .mp3) with no result. I guess solution might include some server configuring or adding scripts to server, but unfortunately I lack knowledge in that area.
If anyone is familiar with that issue, any suggestions would be great.

Best regards,
Glen

mudshark1 · 05-24-2008, 03:03 PM

I found this thread while googling for solutions to the same problem I'm having. Just wanted to add to the thread to see if anyone has any solutions. This is becoming very frustrating and no one seems to be able to come up with an answer.

paranoid4 · 05-25-2008, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudshark1

I found this thread while googling for solutions to the same problem I'm having. Just wanted to add to the thread to see if anyone has any solutions. This is becoming very frustrating and no one seems to be able to come up with an answer.

So there are people with the same problem after all. So anyone with knowledge have any idea?

mudshark1 · 05-25-2008, 01:02 PM

I'm going to submit a Help Desk ticket to my host Tuesday (I figured I'd let them enjoy the holiday). When I first asked them about the problem, they could not duplicate it. However, now I can at least tell them it seems to be a DirectAdmin problem. Seems like it should be able to be rectified fairly easily, but I don't know anything about programming so I'm just guessing. We can't be the only ones having these issues.

Meanwhile, I did find a solution. I signed up with another host which uses CPanel. Not my preferred fix, but until it can be figured out, that's my best bet.

lynnsharpe · 05-26-2008, 04:50 PM

This must be one of the truly "unsolvable" problems in the Firefox world. I have tried all kinds of suggestions in the Firefox and Quicktime configurations, but no success. If I try to run a Quicktime file in Firefox I always get the error that Quicktime has not been installed correctly. I have tried using latest versions of both to see if any fixes have been applied but still no success. If I find a quicktime video that I want to see, I have to copy the URL, then shut down Firefox and open IE to view it. You would think that Mozilla would be concerned but evidently not.

mudshark1 · 05-27-2008, 05:23 PM

As an experiment, I signed up with a host which offer the option of choosing either CPanel control panel or Direct Admin. I signed up for one of each and uploaded the exact same .mp3 file to folders at both sites. The Direct Admin site had the problem, but the CPanel site played fine. Well, I submitted a Help Desk ticket to the host explaining the problem and this is the reply I received. Well the two servers are different as the DA server is running FreeBSD and the Cpanel server is running CentOS Linux.

We're sorry but this is something you need to resolve yourself. It's something you need to manipulate in html or php files as music files are not meant to be played in this way directly anyway.

So now what am I (what are we) supposed to do? Any ideas?

mudshark1 · 05-28-2008, 05:02 AM

One more little followup. After explaining that the audio plays fine on the site with the CPanel control panel burt not on the site with Direct Admin, support believes it's not an issue with the control panel itself, but that one server is running Linux and the other is running Unix. They also suggested that I search on Google for how to embed audio files in scripts as this should solve the issue

I don't know enough to know whether that's the case, but maybe someone here does.

mudshark1 · 05-28-2008, 09:40 AM

Well, here's another little wrinkle that makes things even more confusing. It may have nothing at all to do with my site, my links, or the control panel, and everything to do with Firefox. I just tried to play a .wav file which was attached to an email I received. The attachment plays truncated in Firefox but plays perfectly if I use Safari.

Jeebus, this is frustrating as hell. The inconsistency is what's really driving me batty.

ccdesan · 06-12-2008, 07:50 AM

Just had the same problem crop up yesterday, not an attachment but a weblink link to an .mp3 or .wav file on my server. Both of them play truncated or choppy in Firefox but correctly in MSIE. Frustrating, because Firefox is so superior in most other ways.

thebof1993 · 06-14-2008, 04:11 AM

I have also had this problem for a v. long time but have just ignored it!

I guess that was the wrong thing to do.

8grad · 06-17-2008, 04:53 AM

Hello people!
I experienced the same problem which involves the combination Firefox and the QuickTime plug-in.

On our own web server (APACHE), Firefox wasn't able to play a mp3-file through the Quicktime-Plugin (or maybe 2-5 secs) whereas I could play the same file on a different server.
Any other format, such as m4a, mov, mpeg, et cetera did work!

I was talking to our admin about this issue and within 10 mins, he presented the solution.

@mudshark1: Sorry to have to inform you on that, but your server guys simply just don't have any idea. "We're sorry but this is something you need to resolve yourself.... It's something you need to manipulate in html or php files as music files are not meant to be played in this way directly an" THIS IS COMPLETE NONSENSE!

Who says which way you have to listen to files???

Anyway:
We here found out that Firefox has some kind of problem with the compression of mod_deflate . The APACHE mod_deflate module provides the DEFLATE output filter that allows output from your server to be [gzip]-compressed before being sent to the client over the network.

Firefox doesn't seem to understand that....
Changes within deflate.conf to:
--> SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp3$ no-gzip dont-vary
AND deleting your cache does solve this problem forever!

Good luck ya

marc, Team-Tejat Hamburg

mudshark1 · 06-18-2008, 07:02 AM

Marc,

I certainly don't question that my host(s) may not know everything. But my question now is whether the solution you mention is something that I need to do or something they need to do at the server side.

Your comment that...

Anyway:
We here found out that Firefox has some kind of problem with the compression of mod_deflate . The APACHE mod_deflate module provides the DEFLATE output filter that allows output from your server to be [gzip]-compressed before being sent to the client over the network.

Firefox doesn't seem to understand that....
Changes within deflate.conf to:
--> SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp3$ no-gzip dont-vary
AND deleting your cache does solve this problem forever!

...might as well be Greek to me, but if it's something I can do through my control panel, I'm happy to try it if you can explain it in simple terms for the simple minded. If I can't do it myself, will your explanation above make sense to my host?

Thanks.

8grad · 06-19-2008, 03:42 AM

Dear mudshark1,

Sorry for the confusion!
I'll try again:
I assume you have a provider somewhere out in the world running a webserver to host your site. I assume as well these guys run a APACHE webserver since it is the most common webserver software.

Contol panel:
I am not really sure whether you can edit the different Apache modules, through some kind of control panel but I think you can not..., since you can really mess up the Apache configuration.

Does your host run php? You could try to find out whether or not the module mod_deflate module is installed on your server.
Place a file with the content:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

on your server and access it through you webbrowser. This Php-Function outputs all the details about your host-system.
Now try to find the line "Loaded Modules."

If you find mod_deflate as a loaded module you should tell your server guys to edit it's configuration file (deflate.conf) and exclude mp3 from being compressed before sent to the browser. (since Firefox Browsers can not handle this...) If they don't know how to do it, tell them we did it this way:

SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp3$ no-gzip dont-vary

I hope this helps.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!!

Cheers, Marc

1vondo · 08-29-2008, 08:59 AM

I had a problem listening to my phone messages on Comcast Digital Voice when using Firefox. The audio file would not play even though the Quicktime plugin was installed. I installed the Firefox Add-on "Media Wrap 0.1.7.3 and this solved the problem.
Vondo

kevinmoilar · 06-02-2010, 06:36 AM

8grad thanks! SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp3$ no-gzip dont-vary in deflate.conf fixed it for me